March 19: Sketch Comedy

Cartoonist Roz Chast takes on the hilarities—and anxieties—of everyday life

By Amanda Ross

Published: February 25, 2014

Photo courtesy Bill Franzen

Roz Chast is a cover girl, though not in the way you’re imagining. This cartoonist’s illustrious work has been featured on six New Yorker covers, and her comedic drawings on topics like social anxiety are a staple of the distinguished magazine, which has featured more than 800 of her comics. After attending the renowned Rhode Island School of Design, Chast’s early work appeared in The Village Voice, and she published her first cartoon in the New Yorker in 1978. Since then, she’s published more than a dozen books and won the New York City Literary Award for Humor in 2012. Chast’s strength lies in her observances of everyday life; some of her more famous cartoon panels detail a text conversation between Romeo and Juliet (complete with teen angst emoticons) and what friends say at a party after you leave. (Hint: they’re not lamenting your absence.) At this event, she draws audience members in with stories about her work and life.